Ex-Puerto Rico priest gets 11 years in sex abuse case
Source: AP
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A former Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison for taking a teenage boy on a cruise ship vacation with the intent to engage in illegal sexual conduct.
The U.S. Attorney's Office on the U.S. Caribbean island announced the sentencing of expelled priest Israel Berrios, who had pleaded guilty in August 2014.
Prosecutors accused Berrios of giving the 15-year-old boy money, a computer and a camera and taking him on a four-day cruise to the Bahamas with his mother's permission in July 2008. The victim, now a young adult, was apparently an altar boy at the time.
Berrios previously served as director of a Catholic school in the mountain town of Aibonito and as a priest in the diocese of Caguas, south of the U.S. island's capital. He is in his late 50s.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/894e260de8534488b9e3954da3e2df9d/ex-puerto-rico-priest-gets-11-years-sex-abuse-case
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Last edited Thu Jun 18, 2015, 11:27 PM - Edit history (1)
The Victim was 15 years of age. Under the Common Law, it was legal for him to have sex with anyone he wanted to have sex with. Thus under the Common Law this Priest did nothing illegal (The age of consent under the Common law was 12).
Now, the States objects to 12 being the age to consent starting in the 1800s and every state now sets the age of consent by statute.
In most of Europe the age of Consent is 14 or 15, Britain and Norway are the big exceptions, the age of Consent in those two countries is 16. Thus this would have been LEGAL in most of Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent
In many Mexican States it is illegal is have sex with anyone below age 12, but 16 is generally considered the age of full consent. Age 12 to 16 varies based on local Mexican State law.
In Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Omar and the Persian Gulf States, you must be married to have sex,
In the above maps, Dark Blue mean age of consent is 16, which covers Canada, most, but NOT all US states, All Australia States except South Australia the age is 16 (Through Queensland says homosexuals acts are illegal if a party is below age 18). Please note the US States that do NOT use age 16, use ages 17 (Brown in the map, New York, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Missouri) or 18 (Green on the Map, California, Arizona Utah, Oregon, Idaho, North Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Virginia) as the age of consent.
Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Turkestan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, South Africa, Algeria all use age 16 as does the UK and most of the US.
The other three blues, as each becomes lighter, means the age of consent is 15, 14 and 13, (The lightest Blue as in Argentina and Spain which is age 13).
Brazil, Chile, Peru, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, China, the age of Consent is 14
Poland, France, Romania, The Czech Republic, Sweden the age of consent is 15.
In this case the age of Consent in Puerto Rico is age 16, like most of North America, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and most of the islands of the West Indies (Haiti is the big exception, 18 is the age of Consent in Haiti).
Just pointing out that in parts of the world what this Priest did would have been legal, he just picked the wrong place.